Comments

It's wonderful to see that ideas are being sought across the globe in the eradication of TB. Please also consider those communities that are affected by TB who need to be engaged as partners to develop solutions and ownership of the issues. Being from the South Fly District in the Western Province of PNG, where Australia has spent a considerable amount to combat the TB problem; underlying cultural and socio-econimc issues are probably one of the biggest hindrances to eradicating TB; this is not an Australian problem to solve but better engagement with affected communities to reach local solutions for these problems is part of their contribution to eradicating TB.

Thank you Amanda for doing the google search to prove that the shameful information reported by PC on its front page was inaccurate. Thank you again, you are a true ambassador of providing a positive image of my beautiful country Papua New Guinea.

Congratulations Robyn. Australia's scientific and technical resources used to collaboratively meet local needs - our most underused development resource?

Interesting note. I was wondering what would be your take on the overlapping Country strategy Programs by donor. E.g. i read a news recently that the ADB has provided assistance to NDMA for developing a Disaster Financing Fund, where as other donors are already engaged on more or less the same theme with provincial governments. Do the donors also compete for populous aid interventions?

Thank you to the nine people who took the trouble to write comments on my blog post. I feel proud that my research has helped to alleviate the shame that so many people in Papua New Guinea have been feeling since the publication of the front-page story. Henry and Stanley, thank you for suggesting that the Post-Courier might consider re-publishing my blog post. After you suggested this, I did contact them to pass on your idea, but I am not aware of them having re-published my analysis. The post has also been passed on to The National, the other daily newspaper in PNG, but again I am not aware of them having re-published it. Amanda. 🙂

For more information on gender and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and water resources management, please see the short summary report developed by the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney and WaterAid titled - Gender SDG6: The Critical Connection. This report was commissioned by the Australian Water Partnership/DFAT for the United Nations High Level Panel on Water, which Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is a member of, and can be accessed at: https://waterpartnership.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/HLPW-Gender-SDG6.pdf

How do girls (children) fit into thevdiscussion on gender politics.?

Readers might be interested in <a href="http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/4129606.pdf" rel="nofollow">this handy compilation</a> of information on offshore processing from 2012 to the end of 2016, prepared by Australia's Parliamentary Library and drawn mainly from Department of Immigration and Border Protection monthly statistical reports. It supports the suggestion above with respect to annual costs, among other things. One point that I would highlight is that of the 2017 people who have now received status determinations from the PNG and Nauru governments, 80% were found to be refugees. The proportion might well have been higher, at least after appeals, if they had been processed within Australia.

Thanks Ash and Garth, I definitely like the idea of annually reviewing. I also think you explanations may be part of the story Ashlee, and they definitely warrant being looked into further. But they still don't explain the religion and board gender correlations. These correlations suggest other issues afoot. Though I'm not 100% sure what they are. There's a great mixed-methods PhD in this for an aspiring researcher. Terence

Yes, great post Terence. And I think Ashlee's comments are also very relevant. Perhaps Devpol could do an annual review of the gender situation in NGO management to keep reminding people.

Great post Terence! I have a few other ideas of what could be part of the issue, obviously just anecdotal but I'd be interested what others think. One is that work-related travel - both domestic and international - is still often difficult for women with children, yet often needed to progress in this space and definitely needed in those leadership roles. Two could be burn-out - I have had several of my mid-career female friends leave the sector or go freelance/consultant because of the huge and unreasonable workloads expected of them in full-time positions in some NGOs - trying to balance that with family or other commitments sometimes becomes too much. It seems there is sometimes an idea that if you are willing to work in a not-for-profit, you are will to sacrifice pretty much everything for the cause, which is pretty problematic. Three, we should remember that DFAT still has issues getting women in leadership as well, and high-level public servants who have worked on aid would also be strong candidates for these NGO leadership roles. And four (like a recent study on the Aust public service highlighted), perhaps the more 'sexy' policy/advocacy/international program roles still tend to go to men, while women (anecdotally, obviously massively generalising) often seem to more predominantly work in areas such as communications, program admin, fundraising or as sector specialists in areas like health, education or gender -- perhaps this kind of experience isn't taken as seriously as that policy/advocacy experience when it comes to appointing NGO leaders? There also does seem to be a bit of a culture nowadays of bringing on outsiders - people from outside the development sector - for some of these leadership roles, so that could be another factor.

May the world understand the poorest countries that already suffer the impact of climate change, can not wait!